The present invention relates to a water key for brass musical instruments, particularly slide trombones.
The purpose of a musical instrument water key is to provide an orifice through which condensation and moisture can be expelled. In the past, water keys have been constructed in a variety of fashions, but all suffer certain limitations. Trumpet style water keys, for instance, consist of valve caps attached to levers on springed fulcrums. These are difficult to manufacture in varying sizes or lengths; they must often be manufactured from costly casted parts; and they are awkward to assemble and easily caught on objects or damaged. Other specialized trombone water keys, see, e.g., Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,997 (1948), in addition to suffering similar constraints, require lubricants and deteriorate with usage. Finally, the Amado piston style water key also is unsuitable in many applications: it provides only a small orifice for water drainage; it is relatively heavy; and its piston is generally confined to small dimensions which make it unsuitable for reaching over long distances as required, for example, on a trombone slide.
The primary object of this invention is to provide a water key with few individual parts which can be easily manufactured and installed. It is also intended to replace typical water keys comprised of bent or cast parts, or parts which will stick due to lack of lubrication or wear.
Another object of this invention is to provide a water key that is operated comfortably by the natural action of the musician's fingers.
Another object of the invention is to provide a water key that closely fits the contour of the instrument so as to eliminate the inconvenience and damage resulting from a musician's accidentally striking the water key or catching it on another object.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a water key that shortens the distance a musician needs to reach in order to effect its operation.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a water key that can be easily adapted to left-handed or right-handed musicians.
With the foregoing objects in view, as may appear hereinafter, reference is directed to the accompanying drawings.